In MPC applications, there is a set of tuning parameters used to tune the closed-loop response for acceptable performance. Multivariable MPCs have many applications including controlling paper machine processes. Suitable paper machine processes where paper is continuously manufactured from wet stock are further described, for instance, in U.S. Pat. No. 6,805,899 to MacHattie et al., U.S. Pat. No. 6,466,839 to Heaven et al., U.S. Pat. No. 6,149,770, to Hu et al., U.S. Pat. No. 6,092,003 to Hagart-Alexander et al, U.S. Pat. No. 6,080,278 to Heaven et al., U.S. Pat. No. 6,059,931 to Hu et al., U.S. Pat. No. 5,853,543 to Hu et al., and U.S. Pat. No. 5,892,679 to He, which are all assigned to Honeywell International, Inc. and are incorporated herein by reference.
The typical procedure for implementing an MPC control system which is shown in FIG. 1 begins with identifying the process model. For papermaking process, this can be accomplished with bump tests. A multivariable MPC usually has a group of tuning parameters, such as prediction horizon, control horizon and weights. Typically, these parameters are adjusted via a trial and error procedure depicted as steps 2 through 6 in FIG. 1. This trial and error procedure requires a large amount of simulations based on some tuning guidelines. This cumbersome tuning procedure usually takes a lot of time especially for tuning a multivariable MPC, due to the overlapping effect of the tuning parameters and multiple interactive responses between the inputs and outputs. In addition, this traditional tuning procedure usually does not consider the evitable process/model mismatch. Further, if a process model is ill-conditioned, the tuning task can be very challenging, as the closed-loop system can be easily unstable and the actuators are very likely to become saturated with a typical MPC design. Another practical issue with prior art tuning methods is that there is no indication whether the controller is robustly stable for inevitable model uncertainties.
In control engineering, many requirements are often defined via the singular value decomposition and in the frequency domain, where the necessary requirements of nominal stability, robust stability, and nominal performance are often defined. On the other hand, there are additional practical closed-loop requirements that are typically specified in the physical domain. In multivariable control these physical requirements can include the specification of the relative importance of the measured variables or a specification on the relative usage of actuators. With current tuning techniques, there is no assurance that the controller's performance and robustness. The controller may be too conservative and work sub-optimally or too aggressive for multivariable systems. There is a need for a consistent automated tuning method for multivariable MPC that is readily implemented and achieves good controller performance and robustness.
In R. Shridhar and D. J. Cooper, “A tuning strategy for unconstrained multivariable model predictive control,” Industrial & Engineering Chemistry & Research, vol. 37, no. 10, pp 4003-4016, 1998 and D. Dougherty and D. J. Cooper, “Tuning guidelines of a dynamic matrix controller for integrating (non-self-regulating) processes,” Industrial & Engineering Chemistry & Research, vol. 42, no. 8, pp 1739-1752, 2003, the authors proposed some tuning guidelines for multivariable dynamic matrix controllers. In K. Y. Rani and H. Unbehauen, “Study of predictive controller tuning methods,” Automatica, vol. 33, no 12, pp 2243-2248, 1997, the authors proposed tuning procedures for predictive controllers that are based on some tuning rules and closed-loop simulations. In J. H. Lee and Z. Yu, “Tuning of model predictive controllers for robust performance,” Computers & Chemical Engineering, vol. 18, no. 1, pp. 15-37, 1994, tuning rules based on the frequency-domain analysis of the closed-loop behavior of MPC controllers are presented. In A. Al-Ghazzawi, et al., “On-line tuning strategy for model predictive controllers,” Journal of Process Control, vol. 11, no. 3, pp. 265-284, 2001, an on-line tuning strategy for linear model predictive control algorithms is proposed based on the linear approximation between the closed-loop predicted output and the MPC tuning parameters. J. Trierweiler and L. A. Farina, “RPN tuning strategy for model predictive control,” Journal of Process Control, vol. 13, no. 7, pp. 591-598, 2003, presented a tuning strategy based on robust performance number for multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) MPC. However these are not automatic tuning techniques considering both performance and robust stability.